NEWPORT, Ky. — Flipping furniture can be a fun, money-making hobby for creative artists who are able to find the right pieces.
Have you ever tried to take something that has been thrown away and give it a new purpose? This is what often motivates Megan McDonough as she paints and sands pieces of furniture.
She said, “Why not take things that other people don’t want and give them a new life and make a little money while you do it?”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, one of the least recyclable home goods is furniture. A huge amount of couches, love seats and chairs are disposed of in the trash every year.
McDonough is a new flipper and works out of a rented garage in Newport, repairing furniture to resell through her Instagram page Megndidit and Facebook Marketplace. However, before the rebuilding can begin, she spends hours searching the web or going to local donation centers to find the perfect item.
“I think that based on what I’ve been gathering from other people that do this, consistency is key,” she said.
She says these stores often have great items that just need a little love.
And it turns out that hunting for the hidden treasures runs in the family.
”I suffer from what I call in my family the old things affliction. I know that it at least came from my grandfather. My father has it. I have it. We like to collect things,” McDonough shared.
She and her husband have had some luck rebuilding pieces and made a good profit, but they’ve also run into challenges.
“We’ve learned that there is definitely a learning curve when purchasing some of these things,” she said. “We bought a home from a liquid pallet liquidation company and it said incomplete, but it was actually a box one of two. But we found the second one in Dayton.”
Despite these obstacles, she says the work is important. “You’re taking well-made historic pieces and keeping them out of the trash,” McDonough said.
And in northern Kentucky for the last three years, reseller groups have hosted a “Resellers Rally” where hundreds of flippers come to sell their good from all over the U.S.